Monday, February 15, 2010

If you can't question 'em, kill 'em

I just read an interesting post at Legal Insurrection where Prof. Jacobson points out quite correctly that he predicted that the end result of giving rights to terrorists would be that more terrorists would die.

Removing the incentive to take terrorists captive may have an unintended consequence of leading to more terrorist deaths. The closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (Gitmo), and providing terrorists captured abroad with the full panoply of US constitutional rights, makes this unintended consequence more likely.

I am a strong believer that a dead terrorist is a good terrorist but clearly, a talking terrorist is vastly better. Unfortunately, in bowing to the Left the administration tied its hands on interrogation and instead has stepped up the used of drone predators to deal with terrorists. In answering criticism from Dick Cheney, VP Joe Biden claimed that this administration had killed 12 of al-Qaida's 20 top leaders. That is all well and good, if true, but what actionable intelligence did we ring out of those "top leaders" prior to "eliminating" them? None.

Granted, it is not always possible to capture "top leaders" and when it is not possible "eliminating" is the next best thing. But the current administration has all but given up on capturing members of al-Qaida because once caught there is nothing we can do with them.

How much valuable information is being lost due to Obama's policies? Sadly, we will never know.

No comments:

About Me

Woke up one day and decided I'd better start paying attention. Found out that there is a direct correlation between paying attention and ulcers.
The ulcers don't bother me. Fortunately, my parents credo was "Don't let the bastards get you down!" I never have.